A Southward Tide

Poems, essays and excerpts. A favorite quote or two. An observation. A compendium of imagery. A dream analysis.

Tag: Music

February 3, 2014

Music and Writing

Things that help me write prose:

1. Music
2. Driving; music
3. Walking; music
4. Staring off into space; silence
5. Dancing; music
6. Music
7. Spinning, handstands, cartwheels; chirping birds

Things that help me write poetry:

1. Weird Mood; silence, tumbleweeds

And if the music is good enough, words pop right out of the sky, streaming in my head, colored sentence ribbons variegated like a bouquet of tropical things. I count on music to inspire me; the musicians do most of the work. For a recent short story, I listened exclusively to Chopin while writing and then the soundtrack of Waltz with Bashir to edit. Right now, Vampire Weekend’s new album. What inspires you?

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November 4, 2013

If Only Words Could Fly Like That

Sounds cast from piano strings
build phrases like skyscrapers shells,
a window lattice of violin bows
slashed by the conductor’s hand.

If only words could fly like that,
ruthless slicing the atmosphere
like the grid skin of an arithmetic city.

The music rises in adjectives and verbs,
the cello spins prepositions to rarified heights.

Our words have not the tensile strength
to buttress the transoms of this geometric land.

But our ears, they float heavenward
along polished beams and glass planes,
gliding like rational snakes up a vertical map
to coordinates unresolved,
supple and punctilious.

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